Articulated coupling arrangements are presently used rather extensively, in the railroad industry, to semipermanently connect at least two or more railroad car bodies together in order to form a relatively long railroad vehicle. In this type arrangement there is provided a railroad truck, or bogie, under each articulated type connection for supporting the same, and an additional truck, or bogie, is disposed under each unconnected end of the two outermost end modules of the large railroad vehicle made up of the plurality of individual car modules. The articulated type connector allows for not only the relative horizontal pivotal movement that is needed between adjoining and coupled ends of two adjacent car modules (angling such as in curves), but also it must allow for relative vertical/angling and movements therebetween, in order to accommodate, during operation, track inclines and declines, as well as general differences in the vertical heights of the adjoining ends of the adjacent car modules due to track conditions or tolerances and frictional wear of various components within the articulated connectors.
For a better understanding of the prior art articulated coupling arrangements used extensively, in the railroad industry, reference is now made to each of U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,593,829 and 4,867,071. Each of these patents is incorporated herein by reference thereto.
It can be clearly seen in these patents that, in conventional fashion, the male connection member's lower surface is supported on a convex surface of a spherical ring bearing member. This convex surface cooperates with a lower concave surface of another spherical ring bearing member seated in the annular region located between the hub or sleeve member and an upstanding rim of the wall portion. These spherical ring bearing members, in the conventional manner, allow for the necessary relative shifting and/or angling of both the female and male connector components during both vertical angling and car body roll.
Prior to the present invention, it is well known that a considerable amount of frictional wear occurs to both the working surface of such convex spherical ring bearing member and to the working surface of the lower concave spherical ring bearing member. Such frictional wear of these critical component parts will allow the male connection member to drop, with respect to a horizontal plane, thus causing operating problems with either of these articulated type connectors.
Lubrication of these particular working surfaces is extremely difficult to maintain due to the environment in which the are used. That is, they are oftentimes subjected to considerable amounts of rain water and/or debris during in-track service.